WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat recently spoke with ESPN.com‘s Brian Campbell; you can read a few excerpts below:
Ricky Steamboat comments on training today’s wrestlers, teaching basic moves and techniques:
“A lot of the young guys today can do a bunch of fantastic stuff, but I find that they are not connecting the dots. It’s not much of storytelling. They are out there just doing stuff to fill in the blanks, just doing stuff to do stuff. I would like them to be able to tell a story so the fans could actually follow the match along.”
Steamboat praises Shane McMahon’s leap off of the Hell In A Cell at Wrestlemania 32, saying other matches today rely too much on big spots one right after another:
“How long did they let that moment breathe? What that means is you’ve got to let the fans realize what they just saw. And they may play it back and re-enact it in their minds a half a dozen times. ‘Oh, I can’t believe it! Did you see how far he fell?’ Big moments, you’ve got to let it soak in. It actually adds to the drama so you don’t throw away the move and the moment.”
Steamboat talks about retirement, a health scare from an aneurysm forcing him to stop taking bumps and getting physical in training all together:
“It was a pretty good wake-up call. To me, the match time was fun. That was my time in the ring. Nobody could take that away in what I could do and being able to tell a story. That was a major portion of my heart that went away when I was not able to do that. It’s hard. I don’t think I’ll ever [fill the void.]
“I just had to come to grips with myself and realize I can long longer be the guy that I was. I still get down on myself a little bit because my heart says, ‘Hey, remember all the fun you had? Go in there and do it.’ And then the brain speaks up saying, ‘Hey, be smart about it.’ You’ve got the devil on one side and you’ve got the man, God, sitting on the other one. I’ll never get over it, but I’ve just come to a better understanding of it now.”
